The National Council for Civil Liberties: The First Fifty Years PDF
Preview The National Council for Civil Liberties: The First Fifty Years
THE NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES THE NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES The First Fifty Years Mark Lilly M MACMILLAN © Mark Lilly 1984 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission First published 1984 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD London and Basingstoke Companies and representatives throughout the world Typeset by Wessex Typesetters Ltd Frome, Somerset British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Lilly, Mark The National Council for Civil Liberties. I. National Council for Civil Liberties-History I. Title 323.4'06'041 JC599.G7 ISBN 978-0-333-36975-3 ISBN 978-1-349-17483-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-17483-6 For Davey Contents Preface IX Acknowledgements XI 1934-39 The Formation ofNCCL Fascism 10 'Non-Flam' Films 20 The Harworth Colliery Affair 24 The 'Sedition' Bill 28 2 1939-45 34 Dissent 34 The Empire 42 Aliens 48 The Press and the BBC 56 3 1946-59 64 Courts Martial and the Armed Forces 64 Freedom of Expression 68 Mental Health 74 4 1960-74 82 Race Relations and Immigration 82 The Rights of Children 88 Travellers 91 Reluctant Servicemen 97 Northern Ireland 103 VII Vlll Contents 5 1975-84 113 Prisons 113 Policing and the Administration ofJ ustice 122 Information 130 Gay Rights 136 Women's Rights 143 Appendix I: The Council for Academic Freedom and Democracy Professor John Saville 152 Appendix II: The Cobden Trust Malcolm Hurwitt 155 Notes l59 Index 165 Preface The National Council for Civil Liberties was founded 50 years ago in 1934. The aim of this book is to describe some of the issues, and the related campaigns, over that period, and to show the diversity of the Council's work, and its changing role. No attempt has been made to give a comprehensive account of every campaign and every libertarian issue. Rather, I have used a selective focus to highlight very specific areas of interest in order to be able to go into them in greater depth. The book is arranged on a chronological as well as a thematic basis, so that the reader will have a sense of a developing story. Each chapter is defined by a period of years, but I have not hesitated to go outside these dates if it is necessary in the interests of clarity. Because of the nature of the book, it has inevitably been the case that many distinguished and dedicated civil libertarians, both within NCCL and outside it, have been mentioned only in passing, or not at all. Although they are not the sort of people who would seek public recognition for their work, I neverthe less regret that it has not been possible to acknowledge all of their contributions to the continuing fight for a freer society. lX Acknowledgements In writing this book I have been exceptionally lucky in being able to draw heavily on the expertise of colleagues associated with the Council. Some of the material in the first two chapters is based on the unpublished autobiography of Sylvia Scaffardi, who has not only allowed me to make free use of that source but has contributed valuable amendments to my original draft. Melissa Benn,Jean Rogers and Cash Scorer did a great deal of work for the final chapters. Linda Gage, Jean Rogers and, above all, Roger Cornwell read the complete manuscript and made innumerable useful suggestions for change. Malcolm Hurwitt, the Secretary of the Cobden Trust and a long standing member of the executive committee, and Professor John Saville, of the Campaign for Academic Freedom and Democracy, have both kindly contributed appendices on their organisations. My warmest thanks to these kind helpers. I am grateful to the publishing house of Edward Arnold for permission to quote from E. M. Forster's Two Cheers for Democracy. xi 1 1934-39 THE FORMATION OF NCCL On a cold evening on 1 November 1932, while the hunger marchers were streaming towards Parliament Square for the climax of their campaign in London, after three hard weeks on the road, the evening papers placarded the news that Wal Hannington, their leader, had been arrested and refused bail. The charge against him was that of attempting to disaffect the police by appealing to their sense of working class solidarity; they too should join in resisting the economic measures that affected them all. Dense crowds were thronging Westminster and the traffic was halted. The marchers had brought with them a million signatures on a petition against the 10 per cent cuts in unemployment benefit and the means test. They and their followers had struggled and fought their way against police cordons and baton charges, trying to carry the petition down Whitehall to Parliament. They were unaware that when the deputation of fifty had arrived at Charing Cross it had been surrounded by police and the petition confiscated. A one-time freelance journalist, who had been following the demonstration all evening, found himself at about 9.30 at the junction of Trafalgar Square and Whitehall. It was during a lull that his attention was attracted to two men in cloth caps, heavy boots, and muffiers. They were actively inciting the crowd to advance towards the police cordon which had closed off Whitehall near the War Office. There was little response from the crowd, but a certain amount of pushing and shoving.
The list of books you might like
